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SALT LAKE CITY — Local singer-songwriter John Louviere found music in his early 20s as a way to process and express all that was happening to him in his life. He has been making deeply honest, heartfelt music since.
At 21, Louviere had just dropped out of college and was considering becoming a pastor. While walking one day with questions of the future, he was struck with an epiphany.
“I don’t know why it happened, and it sounds kooky, but I did, I heard a voice inside of me say, ‘I’ve given you a gift,’ ” Louviere said. “It had to do with rhythm, but I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.
“I’ve had a few pretty major moments in my life where a sense of inspiration or knowing or understanding has come to me, and this was one of them.”
That week, a woman at his church offered group guitar lessons to anyone interested. Louviere paired this opportunity to his epiphany and decided to attend.
After the lesson he spent the entire week playing and learning the guitar. He immediately began writing songs, and his guitar soon became a constant companion to him through both the trying and good times in his life.
“All I wanted to do was write my own songs. I just had so much I guess I needed to say,” Louviere said.
Immediately after writing songs, Louviere began performing them for friends, saying he is a performer by nature and that has always been an important part of his songwriting.
The process of writing, singing and performing his songs has helped Louviere grapple with many of the questions he and all of us face. In turn, the candid and open songs have also touched and helped people facing similar questions.
Louviere released a five-song EP last September titled “The Longest Year” recorded at Sound Cave Studios. The EP marks a new chapter in his music, and is a collection of songs that express what Louviere has been going through for many years and has been wanting to convey during that time.
“I finally had a chance to do something I wanted to, and it took forever to get down to the heart of what I really wanted to say,” Louviere said. “(But) I really said everything I wanted to.”
Last year was a year of change and transformation for Louviere, and he hopes the changes he made in 2014 will continue to help him this year.
“My gut tells me it is a different year, a different era,” Louviere said. “I’ve asked myself, ‘If I die this year, will I have any regrets?’ Absolutely. I wish I had let these songs come to life.”
With the release of his EP, Louviere hopes to bring his music to a wider audience through playing more shows around Salt Lake and elsewhere. His music can be heard on Bandcamp.com.
